Faculty Spotlight
by Genevieve Wanucha
Swati Rane Levendovszky, PhD, Associate Professor of UW Radiology
As the saying goes, what’s good for the heart is good for the brain. Our brain health depends on our heart health, specifically on the working of the vessels that transport blood around the brain. Lifestyle factors, such as diet and physical activity, can impact these vessels. Studies show that risk factors for cardiovascular disease, including high blood pressure, smoking, diabetes, obesity, and heart problems, are linked to raised risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other causes of dementia.
This link between cardiovascular risk and Alzheimer’s disease has a biological basis; cardiovascular risks manifest as cerebrovascular disease. The UW Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) became one of the first Centers to show, in 2012, that almost 80% of brains affected by Alzheimer’s disease also show abnormalities in the brain’s blood vessels, on autopsy. This finding suggests that the cognitive symptoms of dementia are often not explained only by the Alzheimer’s pathology of amyloid and tau; they may also involve vessel pathology.
Early in her career, Swati Rane Levendovszky, PhD, who is now an associate professor of radiology at the University of Washington, was inspired by this 2012 study and her mentor, Director of the ADRC, Thomas Grabowski, MD, to explore blood vessel pathology and its relation to Alzheimer’s disease in the living brain. She uses magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which is a method of imaging the living brain that reveals brain structure and function and how changes in them relate to symptoms of disease.
“My research focuses on understanding what these vessels are doing, and how they affect the workings of the brain and contribute to Alzheimer’s disease,” she says. “I think of MRI as my window into a person’s brain.”
Rane Levendovszky has helped the ADRC grow into a top Center for vascular imaging with unique capabilities. “All NIA-funded Alzheimer’s research centers around the country can study how the blood flows in the brain, but UW ADRC researchers can study more,” she says. “We can study the properties of the vessel walls and how they supply blood to the brain tissue.” For example, her team can see whether the vessels can increase the blood supply to the brain when someone is doing a cognitive task, such as thinking hard. These measures can reveal a lot about how Alzheimer’s disease and other pathologies are affecting the brain.
Rane Levendovszky is the newly proposed lead of the UW ADRC Imaging and Biomarker Core, which collects and analyzes ADRC brain imaging and biofluid samples and then provides the data to neuroscientists. This Core provides the resources needed for understanding how Alzheimer’s develops in the brain.
“Swati has become essential to all MRI operations for the ADRC and other studies. She is garnering a national reputation as an expert in vascular MRI,” said Thomas Grabowski, MD, Director of the ADRC.
Blood vessels are also critical to the integrity of the blood-brain barrier, which protects the brain from toxic molecules. As we age, inflammation or Alzheimer’s disease can degrade these vessels and allow damaging molecules to slip through into the brain. Rane Levendovszky and her team have developed an MRI method that can assess blood-brain barrier permeability, or ‘leakiness.’ This method is novel and unique to the field because it is safer to use in older people or those who have poor kidney function.
Rane Levendovszky is a member of DEBBIE, a worldwide consortium that aims to develop advanced MRI techniques to assess the blood-brain barrier and use these measures for early biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease. These biomarkers will provide ways to detect and monitor this early stage of disease.
In this vein of work, Rane Levendovszky is mentoring Briana Meyer, PhD, postdoctoral scholar in the UW Department of Radiology on an ADRC-funded project to establish MRI biomarkers of blood-brain barrier dysfunction. One of their aims is to ensure the inclusion of Hispanic and Latino/a/x participants, who are known to have a higher risk of vascular disease than Caucasian populations but who are historically underrepresented in research.
Because of her recognized expertise, Rane Levendovszky was called to work on a national multi-site study called Clarity in Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias Research Through Imaging (CLARiTI). This NIA-funded effort will provide new imaging and blood-based biomarkers for mixed dementia, which is the term for when more than one disease contributes to dementia.
Rane Levendovszky is part of the advanced MRI team of senior scientists across the country within CLARiTI, which leads the innovation in MRI to make it more specific to the study Alzheimer’s disease.
“Our participation in CLARiTI is a big highlight of the past year, and becoming part of DEBBIE is another highlight,” she says. I think it’s a win for the University of Washington and our ADRC.”
